IND vs AUS: Emphasis on fielding, close-in catching in the series, says Rahul Dravid | Cricket News

NAGPUR: The Indian team are focusing on the pitch, especially sliding, ahead of the opening test against Australia which will start here on February 9, head coach Rahul Dravid said on Sunday.
The performance of India’s outfielders has been a concern in the past and Dravid said the team were trying to strengthen the slipline during their pre-season camp here ahead of the four-game Test series.
“Everyone looks in really good shape. It’s good to have the test team back together again. We’ve had a lot of white ball cricket over the last month or so,” Dravid said in a video published by the BCCI on Twitter.
“Some of these boys, going from the white ball to the red ball, it’s good for them to have that long spell in the nets. The surfaces have been very good as well,” he said.
India are holding their training sessions at Civil Lines VCA Stadium with the first test scheduled at VCA Jamtha Stadium on Thursday.

“The pitch side of things too, that’s been really important as well. The close catch which we think is going to become a very important part of the series.
“There’s a lot of emphasis and focus on close catching, sliding down the field, things like that when you’re on the road all the time and you don’t have time to build and work on these things.”
With the team on the road throughout the year, Dravid said there was hardly any time to work with the players so it was quite exciting to have this week ahead. on the series.
“We’ve had a couple of really long sessions. I think it’s really exciting as a coach because you don’t really get moments like this because of the amount of cricket we play.” he declared.
“You don’t have time to do a camp or you can have an extended period of time where you can work with the players and prepare for the test series.
“Just being able to get this week has been really exciting for us and we as the coaching staff have been planning and preparing for this for almost a month or so on what we will do in those four to five days. I’m I’m glad it all went really well.”

In addition to the Nagpur Test, Australia and India, currently ranked No. 1 and 2 respectively in the ICC Men’s Test Team Rankings and the current Test World Championship cycle, will also play in New Delhi (February 17-21), Dharamsala (March 1-5) and Ahmedabad (March 9-13).
“Even though it is short by my standards, I like to have longer camps where we can work with people. But even then, we are happy to have five or six days here in Nagpur,” continued David.

“It’s been really fruitful and the boys look good. Hopefully two or three more days in the test match and then we can pick up from there.”
India, who first played for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia in 1996-97, have won the last three series in 2017, 2018-19 and 2020-21.
The hosts are the current holders of the trophy and will be aiming to become the first team to win four consecutive Test series between the pair.